Substack Vs Medium: A Comparison And Which Writing Platform is Best For Making Money?

Medium and Substack are two writing platforms that are very different from each other but still have a lot more comparisons as well. Medium is one of the best writing platforms. I love this platform. They made publishing so easy and make it more fun, they also combine it with a reward system. You make more money writing on Medium fast and easy. Substack in comparison is a very different writing platform. It is a more inclusive platform. There is no built-in traffic. Both the writing platform; Medium and Substack, had pros and cons. We will discuss a deep-down guide comparing Substack with Medium.

Back in the days, in 2017, I was in college, struggling to make some money to afford food. I started a free blog on Blogger and reading different reviews about making money made me demotivated. Medium .com does exist in 2017 but gosh; Why didn't know about it back then? Now, as you are reading this article, Medium is one of the best writing platforms to share your stories. Aamir Kamal on Medium is where I share stories on Medium.

Things You should know about Medium:

Medium is a free writing platform where you can make money writing. You don't need to pay anyone to make money. Medium has two programs for readers and writers. For readers, the Medium membership program costs $5 per month which will help you to read unlimited articles for a month. The Medium partner program is for writers who want to make money writing on Medium. So, if you are a Medium member and you read an article that is from a writer who is in the Medium partner program then some portion of earning will goes to that writer.

There is another concept on Medium and that's Medium distribution and Medium publications. When your story is distributed then this means Medium curators choose your story to be promoted on Medium. The Medium publication is like Facebook open groups. You will make more money if your story is published in popular Medium publications and it gets curated. Not getting curated doesn't mean you will not make any money but you will not reach a wider audience.

IF you want to join Medium membership and want to pay $5 a month to read thousands of articles on Medium, you can join here and support me and thousands of writers.

I am writing on Medium for over 2-years now. The platform is changed in recent years. One year of my writing was without joining the Medium partner program, when I joined Medium partner program, I write about every topic I know about. Now, I am making over $300 a month on Medium. Living in a third-world country this amount of money could help me a lot. Also, this is no hard and fast rule that I will always make $300 a month on Medium, you can make more than that. Also, For 2021, I am going to write 40 stories a month on Medium, and let hope for the best.

Following are the 5 things you should know about Medium:

• Medium.com is a free website to make money and share your stories.
• If you want to make a huge amount of money then getting published on popular Medium publications and getting distributed is the best thing that could happen to you.
• You can reach thousands of people through your writing on Medium and for free.
• Join the Medium partner program now and in the very next day after publishing some stories, you will start seeing earnings on Medium.
• Medium is more of a liberal platform, they give you the freedom to talk about almost anything. There is no restriction on promoting affiliate products or writing sponsor posts but you have to just disclose in your Medium story that there are some affiliate links in your story following the FTC guidelines.

Things you should know about Substack:

Substack is a writing platform combined with the idea of using an email newsletter to grow your audience and get permanent readers. Substack has a monetization way of charging your email subscribers to read the content that you lock. The business model of Substack is they charge 10% of what a single paid reader-pays you or for every transaction. This is a revolutionary idea. Substack is now giving you a custom email that makes my legs go jelly. You can read the whole article: How to make money writing on Substack?

Substack indeed is a website where you can't get a built-in audience but you have to grow your email list by writing quality articles. Substack could be a potential writing platform. You could also use Substack just for getting email subscribers from Medium and sent them your future stories on Medium.

Comparison between Substack Vs Medium:

The following are the 5 differences between Medium and Substack.

1. The way to monetize your content: On Medium, you can monetize your stories by joining the Medium partner program. You can also make money by doing affiliate marketing on Medium. On Substack, you can make money by adding locked articles and letting your email subscriber pay you a monthly or yearly fee to read your articles. You can also do a sponsored post on Substack if you have a big email list of subscribers.

2. The cost factor difference between Substack And Medium: Now, you might know that Medium just charge you $5 per month to read the work of an unlimited number of writers and read unlimited articles, but on Substack, you have to pay $5 per month just to read articles of a single writer. I think this is the biggest differentiator.

3. The Built-in traffic and the SEO: Medium has built-in traffic and good domain authority which makes it getting your stories ranked on search engines. Substack give you a sub-domain that isn't good for SEO and has no built-in traffic. I think Medium is a winner here.

4. Building a following: The cornerstone of any writing or digital content publishing platform is "More content" You can build yourself a following on Medium. The whole business model of Substack is based on content marketing which in my opinion isn't very sustainable. Email marketing is being used by many companies in the wrong way. So, I think the winner here is; Medium.

5. Branding of the two writing platforms: Medium has taken many steps to make writers a brand. They have just given a back-to-the-home page option, introduced sub-domains, and many more things. In my opinion, Substack has more leverage when it comes to branding than Medium.

6. Giving a custom domain option: Now, Medium and Substack both give you the option to start a publication with a custom domain. Substack charges $50 for getting the feature to add a custom domain to your publication while on Medium you just need to be a Medium member.

If you aren't a Medium member yet and thinking about joining Medium membership, you can join through this link and support me and thousands of writers' work. By joining through this link you would be able to read articles of thousands of writers.

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